Just Talking a Good Game Won’t Do It : Sugar Bowl: Miami, Alabama will try to back up pregame chatter and earn No. 1 ranking in the process tonight.

It is just as well that No. 1-ranked Miami and No. 2-rated Alabama at last meet for the national championship in tonight’s Sugar Bowl game at the Superdome. After all, the human ear can listen to only so much pregame posturing.

In no specific order:

--Miami linebacker Rohan Marley, who doesn’t even start, said, “We’re going to kick (butt).”

--Alabama running back Derrick Lassic chided Marley for his lack of manners and said, “I got something for him.”

--Alabama wide receiver and kick returner David Palmer said the game would hinge on a play involving him or his Miami counterpart, Kevin Williams. He later admitted he has yet to see Williams play.

--Miami linebacker Micheal Barrow said he saw no need to get into a war of words with Alabama players. He promptly added that the Hurricanes’ defense, not the Crimson Tide’s, was the best in the nation because of Miami’s quality of opponents.

--Alabama flanker Prince Wimbley said he thought Miami was trying to play “mind games with us.” Hey, Prince: Really?

--Miami defensive end Darren Krein said the Hurricanes were already a dynasty. Barrow said a victory against Alabama would guarantee it.

--Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham said he could see himself intercepting a pass thrown by Miami quarterback and Heisman winner Gino Torretta.

--Miami wide receiver Lamar Thomas said Alabama’s cornerbacks weren’t “real men” because they don’t play man-to-man coverage.

--Alabama Coach Gene Stallings said, “What some (Miami) rookie wide receiver says doesn’t turn me on too much.”

And so it has gone this week. Style over substance. Cheap talk over hard news. Verbal shots galore.

Now it is time to play an actual game, something each team has done this season without suffering a defeat. In fact, Miami (11-0) has the nation’s longest Division I-A winning streak, 29, and is trying to become the first program since the Associated Press poll began in 1936 to win four national championships in six years and five in 10 seasons.

And only six schools have won consecutive national titles, the last one Alabama in 1978 and 1979. A Hurricane victory would add Miami to that elite list.

“I’m nervous as hell,” Coach Dennis Erickson said as he prepared the Hurricanes for only the ninth bowl meeting between two top-ranked teams. “I’m always nervous.”

Asked if he would be able to sleep the night before the Sugar Bowl, Erickson said he’d be lucky “to get a couple of winks.”

The reasons are simple enough. According to his own game-day checklist, Erickson said Miami needed to protect Torretta, had to establish a running attack, couldn’t afford turnovers, had to block Alabama star defensive ends Eric Curry and John Copeland and absolutely, positively needed to shut down the Crimson Tide rushing game.

Other than that, the Hurricanes are home free.

Alabama’s worries are no less numerous. Like Miami, the Crimson Tide (12-0) has to keep turnovers to a minimum. In the six games Alabama has lost during Stallings’ 36-game tenure, the Crimson Tide committed more turnovers than its opponents.

Like Miami, the Crimson Tide has to figure out a way to keep quarterback Jay Barker out of harm’s way.

And unlike Miami, Alabama needs to devise a defense that will neutralize the potent Hurricane passing attack.

Of course, the most meaningful pregame analysis of the day arose in an imaginary conversation with a guy who isn’t even alive. That’s right, Bear Bryant.

While discussing the legacy of Bryant at Alabama, Stallings had little trouble predicting what the late, great coach would have said while assessing the Crimson Tide’s chances against Miami. All that was missing was a Ouija board and a houndstooth hat.

“He’d say, ‘You better get a little more production out of your passing game. And I’m a little disappointed with your kicking game,’ ” said Stallings, who played for Bryant at Texas A&M; and coached for him at Alabama. “He’d say, ‘Your defense is all right.’ That’d probably be the end of the conversation.”

Short and sweet--the Bryant way. And, as usual, also correct.

The Alabama passing attack is nothing more than an ugly rumor, what with Barker throwing more interceptions than touchdowns this season. And the kicking game, a point of pride with Bryant and Stallings, is a disappointment, the Tide having made only 12 of 19 field-goal attempts from 30 yards or more.

But when all else fails, when ‘Bama bashers are busy picking on Barker or the dull game plans assigned to him, there is comfort in knowing that the Crimson Tide defense is available for duty.

It is no accident that Alabama is ranked first in rushing defense, second in passing defense and first overall. Curry and Copeland have overwhelmed offensive linemen, which forces quarterbacks to do stupid things, such as throw interceptions--22 this year--and swell Alabama’s turnover ratio to plus-18.

Even the hard-to-please Thomas acknowledged Curry and Copeland’s impact. Of course, the compliment came at the expense of Alabama’s secondary.

“I don’t really consider their corner(back)s two of the best corners in the nation,” he said. “Their defensive ends make them.”

Something will give. Alabama has 51 sacks this season. Miami has yielded only 15.

Whatever happens, expect the Crimson Tide to sit back in its zone defense and dare Torretta to throw long, just as it did Florida’s Shane Matthews in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Expect Alabama to try to control the game and the clock with its running game. Expect Barker to struggle against a Miami defense far better than those of any of Alabama’s 12 opponents.

Miami isn’t without its own problems. The Hurricane running attack remains suspect and Syracuse proved that Miami is vulnerable up the middle.

“We’ve been as serious this week as we have before any game,” Alabama center Tobie Shields said. “We were serious in Tuscaloosa. Everybody wants to win. All we’ve heard is that it’s going to be a blowout.”

All anyone has heard is talk. Predictions have been as cheap as an order of beignets. Time to play. Time to learn who can back up the words with something more lasting.

Sugar Bowl Notes

The legacy of Bear Bryant will live on forever at Alabama, which is fine with Crimson Tide Coach Gene Stallings. Stallings, who considers Bryant his coaching mentor, doesn’t bristle a bit when his every move is compared to the legendary Bear. If anything, he welcomes it. But Miami Coach Dennis Erickson, who said he all but worshiped Bryant as a young coach, suggested it might be time to give Stallings his due. “The Bear’s still there, but Gene Stallings is still there, too,” Erickson said.

For what it’s worth: Miami has won 51 of its last 54 games, including its last five bowl games. . . . Alabama has never faced a Heisman Trophy winner in a bowl game. . . . When No. 1 has played No. 2, the top-ranked team is 16-11. . . . If Alabama beats Miami, it will mark the first No. 1 rating for the Crimson Tide since Oct. 28, 1980. . . . There have been two Sugar Bowl games in which the two top-ranked teams met: 1979--No. 1 Penn State vs. No. 2 Alabama; 1983--No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 2 Penn State. The second-ranked team won each time.